Chicago passes on sticker design after allegations of gang symbols

Days before the city sticker was to be printed, the city’s clerk’s office was alerted about a blogger who reportedly said the heart and the hands in the image are evocative of gang symbols.
(MyFoxChicago.com)

Chicago decided to go with the runner-up design for the city’s new sticker after concerns were raised that gang symbols were drawn in the original winner, MyFoxChicago.com reported.

Days before the city sticker was to be printed, the city clerk’s office was alerted about a blogger who reportedly said the heart and the hands in the image are evocative of gang symbols. Susana Mendoza, the city clerk, investigated the matter and decided to pass on the design, the station reported.

Jody Weis, a former police superintendent, told the station, “I don't think it would look good if it's been interpreted that this gang is now on every police car as a city sticker.”

The picture was reportedly designed by a 15-year-old boy in a school for troubled youth who said the design was to honor first responders who rescued him from a fire when he was a child.

"As you can imagine, our student, his mother, and art teacher Janice Gould are devastated by this news. This was such a positive moment in this young man’s life," Jill Watson, director of communications at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, told the station.